


Aftermath

by p0pcandy



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Badass!Rhys, Canon-Typical Violence, Cussing, M/M, Minor Character Death, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-27
Updated: 2016-12-08
Packaged: 2018-05-27 01:58:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 18,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6265183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/p0pcandy/pseuds/p0pcandy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rhys had just defeated Jack, much to his dismay. But, with all the Atlas technology he had recently got from taking the paper that had the rights to Atlas on them... He builds a device that can project Jack, hologram and full bodied. Of course he also is ridiculed a lot from the former CEO of Hyperion. Jack though, cannot do anything, since the device had rendered him harmless.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Start

“I'm sorry Jack,” Rhys said softly, looking at the begging hologram of the former CEO of Hyperion, the one who had promised to help Rhys have his dream come true. To Rhys he was a former ally, and if he dared to say, a former friend. He had blinked and looked away from Jack, “It's over.”

“No, nonono-” Rhys took a final tug at his echo eye, pulling it clean out of his head as the hologram rushed towards him screaming angrily before reaching Rhys. He never reached contact with Rhys’ body.

Rhys felt weak, he looked to the small part of his echo eye in his hand. He had trapped the rogue AI of handsome Jack, in fact the hologram was all that was left of his former hero.

“Never meet your hero's kid, they're all dicks.” Jack's words echoed through his head. He turned around and examined the area to make sure he wasn't still here, that it was just an echo. He put the eye in his pocket and started to notice that his vision was going blurry. He held his head for a second before falling over, passing out from the loss of blood and pain.

 

Rhys had awoken with a sputter, coughing out what seemed to be a mixture of blood and dust. He rubbed some blood away from his mouth. He looked up to the sky where he heard a familiar rakk screech. He struggled to pull himself onto his knees with his one arm. He coughed again, covering his mouth. Rhys wasn't sure how long he had been out, but he was starving and dehydrated. He tried to move his tongue against his lips but to no avail, his mouth was painfully dry. With a few falls and grunts he finally lifted himself up to his feet.

The last thing he could remember is Jack screaming as he ran towards him. Rhys flinched as he got a splitting headache come seemingly out of nowhere. His eye darted to where his cybernetic arm was dangling off a broken piece of metal. He tried to straighten himself as he stumbled over. He gave it a tug but it didn't budge. He let out a grunt of frustration and his eye seemed to steady on Jack’s trophy case.

 

His eye moved slowly across every item until he got to the slip of paper that held all the rights to Atlas. He held onto where his Cybernetic arm would be and grunted in slight pain as he made his way over to the case. He snatched up the paper and put it in his pocket feeling something. He grabbed what was left of his echo eye. He had looked at it for quite some time before he felt the stinging headache come back. He hunched over and felt the dried blood on the side of his head. He rubbed where the dried blood was and looked at it. He clenched the echo eye in his hand, not knowing why he wanted to keep it.

 

He could do research on it, if he went to the Atlas facility and started to perform experiments on it. Maybe he could find out if he had killed the former CEO or if he had simply trapped him. He limped over to the trophy case and grabbed the paper.

 

He had the perfect plan.

 

It had been over a couple months, the former CEO of Hyperion, Jack was suspended in animation in Rhys’ old cybernetic eye. Rhys had found this out while studying the echo eye. Rhys had took refuge in the old Atlas building in Old Haven. With the help of his friends, he had cleaned out the broken statue and dead bodies littering the place. Rhys had fixed up the security systems in the Atlas facility. Walking into his lab, he took his tea and took a long drawn out sip with a sigh after it. He looked to the small projecting device on his table, he had made this device after he tore out his old ECHO eye. Putting a hand up to his left eye and putting down his tea he walked over to it looking over the small ECHO eye in the middle of the projector. He had made the device able to project Handsome Jack. At least, he thought so.

 

He hadn't tested the device out yet but he had programmed it so Jack wouldn't be able to access the system. Without the risks of Jack killing anyone, including himself. He would be able to talk to Jack, and still make sure that the safety of Pandora and Atlas was guaranteed.

The device wasn't nothing special, it was a small computer like device, made from dead Atlas defense robots, an old echo comm, and lastly Rhys' old ECHO eye. He had strode over to the device and slowly ran his fingers over it before coming to a stop at the power button. His eyes slowly set on it before darting to an Echo comm. He reached for it as he put his tea in its place. With a deep breath he started to record, "Test number one... Handsome Jack AI projection." He reached over and took a second long sip from his tea and set it down again, running his finger over the power hesitating. He pushed it down and stepped away.

 

Rhys' eyes widened slowly as he saw a blue like glitch stutter into existence. It hadn't fully constructed Jack before his blue hologram mass went straight through the wall. The glitchy scream that came out of the hologram tore through Rhys' ears. It had taken Rhys a few moments to grasp why the hologram did that. When he realized the hologram was already reconstructing in front of him.

Jack's face was clearly shocked he first looked to his hands and his eyes trailed up to Rhys standing in front of him. "I'm alive?" It seemed to take the hologram a minute before he shook with laughter. The hologram started to glitch as he continued to laugh, he pointed to Rhys as his body was overcome with the shocks of the laugh. Rhys seemed unnerved by this, as he grabbed for his tea. Jack slowly simmered his manic laughing down into a slight chuckle.

 

"I'm not dead." he whispered as he looked Rhys dead in the eye, despite being a hologram it still seemed that he had a shadow over his face. It took less than a few seconds before Jack noticed that Rhys had a cybernetic arm. Without hesitation Jack took his hand, which on Rhys would be his cybernetic hand, and tried to strangle him. It was clear it wasn't working and Rhys raised an eyebrow as Jack refused to give up on his attempts to strangle Rhys.

 

"Why.. Isn't... This working?!" Jack let out through gritted teeth, he finally gave up on his attempts and let his hand fall from his throat. Rhys studied Jack's face as the disbelief struck over the AI. The AI seemed to step closer, squinting at Rhys. Jack's eye trailed over Rhys' body again. Jack had mouthed what seemed to be, 'What the fuck are you wearing?'

 

"Jack?" Rhys had muttered softly as he put the tea cup up to his lips, looking over the hologram's body.

 

"Shut it Rhys! I'm trying to find out why I can't kill you!"

 

"Jack," Rhys said, setting down his tea keeping his eyes on Jack.

 

"Shush!" Jack yelled back to Rhys, making the room go silent for a while before again, Jack tried to see if he could control Rhys. Rhys' eyes went wide as he grabbed for the desk. There was no reason for him to be startled like this, but something in Jack's eyes.

 

"Jack!" Rhys yelled out, half from fear, half from trying to get the hologram to realize that he couldn't hurt Rhys.

 

"What?!" Jack yelled back throwing his hands in the air, his hands almost coming in contact with Rhys' face.

 

"You- You can't access my cybernetics, look I-" Rhys had moved his hand in the direction of the projector, "Look! That's the only thing you have access too."

 

Jack seemed exasperated to say the least, "Fine, fine, then I'll just access this stupid-" There was a pause in his sentence as he slowly looked to Rhys, his eyes showing more disbelief. "You... built this thing without wifi?" He whispered in utter disbelief as his eyes slowly widened.

 

"Well..." Rhys started as he shuffled back up from the desk he was holding onto, "I'm not just going to let you back into my head or the system after what happened on Helios."

 

The hologram straightened himself up, "Fair enough." He crossed his arms and leant back looking at the surprised and slightly nervous man in front of him. His eyes trailed from Rhys to the small projector, and ultimately the small room.

 

"Hey... Isn't this Atlas?" Jack had unfolded his arms by now and was pacing around the room. "Why are we in an Atlas facility?" Rhys had finally stood tall and he cleared his throat, catching Jack's attention on him.

 

"I own Atlas..." Rhys said, his voice clearly cracking.

 

"What... What was that kiddo?" Jack said walking up to Rhys, making him walk back into the desk again.

 

"I. Own. Atlas." Rhys said, keeping his voice steady. "I own the rights to Atlas."

 

"Ooh.." Jack said in a mocking understanding, "Oh, oh I get it. Big boy pants huh Rhysie? You know, there's this other corporation you could have led- Do you wanna guess its name kiddo? It starts with an H."

 

"I rule Atlas by myself-"

 

"Hyperion! That's its name! Do you know what the icing on the goddamn cake is too?" Jack said, raising up a hand, almost as if he was going to slap Rhys. "We could have ruled perfectly fine together!"

 

"I was not about to become a walking meat suit!"

 

"I actually trusted you too, I thought we were a team. Friends even." Jack said, his voice low as he stared down Rhys. "But after all I did for you, just like everyone else, you stabbed me in the back."

 

"I was not going to give up my life, not... Not like that ok?"

 

"You know what Rhys? You can really change on a dime- one second, someone that is respectful and actually a good person, next..." Jack said solemnly.

 

"I... I'm sorry Jack, but..." Rhys kept his eyes at the ground and gritted his teeth, "I was not going to become a meat puppet for you!" Rhys had looked up suddenly into Jack's eyes.

 

"But see, you already were- your robot arm-" Jack pointed, "I could control that, did you forget that Rhysie?"

 

"I didn't I just... I wasn't going to give up my life for you." Rhys blurted out and he regretted saying it as he saw the holograms face twist from confusion to anger.

 

"You're just like everyone else Rhys. I hope you die a slow and painful death like the rest of them."

 

"Jack... I didn't..."

 

"Why even revive me? To shove it more in my face that you won? Or to show me that everyone I trust will always come back to kick me in the ass?"

 

"No, no... I didn't do that- Why I did it was-" Rhys looked between Jack's eyes as the hologram raised an eyebrow.

 

"Because?" He repeated, hoping Rhys would elaborate. They kept eye contact before Rhys broke it, looking first at his hands then the ground. He wasn't sure why he had brought Jack back. Was it to see Jack again? Or was it possibly because of the reasons Jack said? Or was it simply to show he was able to control the devil himself? Or maybe... maybe it was because he wanted to show that Jack could be harmless? Rhys gritted his teeth while Jack seemed to wave his body closer.

 

"Well Rhysie? I don't have all day." Jack seemed to think on that, "Well... I do, but I'm not going to wait for an answer kiddo so spit. It. Out."

 

"Because...Because you begged me. You said that I didn't know what it's like, the darkness- the... the.." Rhys clenched his fists as he slowly lifted his head, "Look- I wanted to be merciful! I wanted to show that I'm not like you!"

 

Jack was still, he seemed taken aback by what Rhys said. He dropped his head, a smirk forming as a soft chuckle emitted from him. "Wow, Rhysie... Did-" Jack laughed, looking up into Rhys' eyes, making the man bump into the desk from trying to backup more, "Did you even _believe_ a word you just said?" The tone of voice from Jack sounded threatening, even through his laughter.

 

"I wasn't lying Jack, I showed mercy on you."

 

"Mercy?" Jack let out a slight chuckle as he saw Rhys slowly stand straight, "You call this," Jack had traced the outline of his own body with his hands while keeping eye contact with Rhys. "You call this _mercy_?" Jack laughed manically holding his head for a second before shooting up and scaring Rhys back to clenching onto the desk. "No! No, you know what would be MERCY kiddo?!" Rhys gulped as he shuffled a hand towards the device. "What would be _mercy_ is letting me kill you to make this PISSHOLE of a planet much" Jack chuckled, "MUCH safer. You, these bandits, the BANDITS that killed me!" Rhys' eyes slowly begun to widen as he searched for the power button on the device without looking. Jack's voice started to glitch as he carried on, "Oohooho the THINGS I would do to you- you pissbag of an employee-" Jack's eyes rested on Rhys and his gaze turned from anger to confusion, "What.. What are you doing?-" The device powered down as Rhys found the button.

 

Rhys took a deep breath through his mouth and let it out from his nose. He rubbed his face then his hair back. Walking over to the ECHO comm, he picked it up and whispered to it, "Test number one... Partially successful..." He took a few more deep breathes after he stopped the recording to calm his nerves. He considered breaking the device, but that would jeopardize all he had worked for to get this thing working. He also considered a smaller device that could just erase Jack's memory. He shook his head sighing deeply. He heard the whir of the laboratory door, jumping up into an almost toy soldier position. A shadow of a person approached him slowly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!! I hope you liked this! I really love these two, and well, I just had to make this fic... soooo enjoy! The next few chapters will HOPEFULLY be out really, REALLY soon!!


	2. A Friendly Face

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys sees his friends again, but while he's doing this Jack is figuring out how to make himself appear without Rhys' help.

"Rhys?" A familiar voice rang throughout the lab as the shadow approached the light to show Vaughn, he seemed a bit worried. "Oh, there you are...” He said, giving Rhys a smile as he moved into the room, a few shadows behind him. "We brought you pizza!"

 

"We?" Rhys asked, looking at the two who had just stepped out of the shadows.

 

"Yeah, we." Sasha said holding a pizza box, Fiona beside her.

 

"Who were you talking too?" Fiona asked, raising an eyebrow at Rhys, "Actually, it sounded like you were arguing with someone."

 

"Oh-" Rhys laughed nervously as he pushed the device behind his back. "No...No one, just myself." He said giving an uneasy smile to the trio.

 

"Really? You shout at yourself?" Fiona asked as she moved over closer to Rhys squinting at him.

 

"Yeah! Uh... I was just... codes and stuff... computer problems" He ran his cybernetic arm through his hair puffing out his cheeks. Fiona studied his face for a moment before Vaughn coughed letting out a soft "awkward...” which turned the group’s attention to him.

 

"Well, we should probably eat this pizza before it gets cold right?" He said, trying to turn the attention to the pizza box instead of himself. Sasha had walked over to Rhys' desk before turning to him.

 

"Is there any place we can eat this? Like a dining room- kitchen... thing?" She asked, putting the pizza box down on his desk. Her attention then turned to a small device seated perfectly in the middle of his desk next to a small Echo recorder.

 

"Oh, well I did turn one of the break lounges into a kitchen kind of." Rhys had followed Sasha with his eyes before seeing what she was looking at, he widened his eyes but tried not to make them suspicious of him.

 

"What's this? I've never seen anything like it before- is it some kind of weapon?" Sasha was reaching for it and Rhys grabbed her hand. She shot a glare at Rhys and he backed up instinctively taking his hand away.

 

"Sorry, sorry- Just don't touch it. It's a prototype and there's still a few bugs..." Rhys pushed it more towards the computer he had on his desk. "It's a bit dangerous right now, I wouldn't advise touching it."

 

"But you just did." Fiona pointed out, starting to take interest in what was going on.

 

"Oh? Oh yeah" Rhys laughed, "I guess I did..." He cleared his throat. "Let's not focus on that, come on I'll show you guys to the break room." Rhys picked up the pizza box and gave it to Sasha. The room was quiet and there was tension between the four until Vaughn spoke up.

 

"What is the prototype?"

 

"Yeah, Rhys, what is it?" Fiona said, crossing her arms.

 

"Ah- well... It's... you see it's kind of a... well sorta kinda an AI?" Rhys' voice sounded wary as his hand moved to keep anyone from touching it.

 

"What kind of AI?" Fiona pushed on.

 

"Just a uh... AI... You know, just normal AI."

 

The tension was only getting worse in the room as it had fell into a deafening silence. Rhys cleared his throat and trudged over to Vaughn, turning him around with his hand to start leading the group out. Sasha and Fiona had took a long glance at the device before proceeding to follow them out of the lab.

 

While Rhys was walking them to the break room it stuck in the back of his mind, what if Jack had found a way to project himself without having to turn the device on. If he only had access to it then as he had seen before he probably would have no trouble taking control over it. He cleared his throat as he reached out to the door and put his hand to the lock.

 

"You can open it?" Sasha seemed dumfounded for a second.

 

"Yeah, I had to reprogram everything or else we'd be getting attacked." Rhys said flatly. The door buzzed open, Rhys had walked in and the trio behind him followed. Sasha had pushed herself to the table and put down the pizza box opening it.

 

"Finally- Let's eat!" she said as Rhys lead the others to the table to sit down. Sasha had pulled out a slice already and was eating it.

 

"Man, it has been such a long time since I had pizza." Fiona said a slight smile forming on her face as she looked around the table. Vaughn had took a slice and offered it to Rhys but he turned it down. Rhys' expression showed how tired he was, and he knew it. He was up all night trying to get some bugs out of the device before he had the guts to turn it on. Part of him wished that he hadn't even bothered to turn it on. There was a deep sigh from him which turned the attention to him.

 

"Are you ok Rhys?" It was Vaughn, through chewing the pizza.

 

"Yeah, yeah no I'm fine." Rhys muttered out.

 

There was silence as they ate, then Fiona and Sasha had grabbed for the same slice. There was a challenging glance from both of them.

 

"Oh here we go..." Vaughn whispered to Rhys keeping his eyes set on his pizza. Rhys looked at Vaughn questionably before hearing a shout of, "Rock-Paper-Scissors-Shoot!"

 

Fiona had chosen rock while her sister chose paper. Fiona looked defeated before laughing wildly and grabbing a different slice.

 

"You're like a psychic or something. How do you always guess what I'm going to throw?"

 

"Just that good." Sasha said laughing and grabbing her pizza slice she had won. Rhys smiled and laughed softly as he reached for a slice of pizza. He hesitated, thinking back on when he had ordered the pizza from Jack's office. He pulled the piece away from the box as to not cause too much attention to be pointed to him. The pizza from his office was amazing, but then again he hadn't ate much before then. Let alone a pizza. He took a bite of the pizza that was in his hands now and kept thinking about what happened back at Hyperion. He hadn't even heard what Sasha had said to him. Truthfully he hadn't even noticed until Vaughn nudged him. He shook his head and looked to Vaughn, then to Sasha.

 

"H-Huh? What was that? Sorry I was spacing out." Rhys said as he glanced up at her.

 

"I asked if you had made any other cool things." She repeated raising an eyebrow, "Are you alright Rhys? You seem a bit out of it." she continued taking another piece from the pizza box.

 

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. Just have a lot of things on my mind." Rhys said mindlessly biting into the pizza again.

 

"Hey Rhys, we're here if you need to talk. You know that right?" Fiona said after finishing her pizza.

 

"Yeah, she's right we're here for you." Vaughn had chimed in his gaze shifting to Rhys. Rhys shuffled in his seat, a small smile forming on his face.

 

"Thanks guys, it uh... means a lot." There was a long awkward silence before Rhys cleared his throat and leaned in closer to the table. "I have some beer in the fridge if-"

 

"Where?" Fiona said, "I can get it." She got up waiting for Rhys' directions. Rhys shook his head.

 

"It's not that big of a hassle Fiona, I can get it myself." Rhys was getting out of his seat, hoping that Fiona would comply with him. He truthfully just wanted to check on Jack to make sure that he hadn't found out how to turn the device on yet. It's not the thought of Jack being able to materialize without the device needing to be turned on, it was more that he himself had revived Jack. Jack wasn't a fan favorite of anyone, not even Hyperion workers, or actually EX-Hyperion workers. Fiona though was quite stubborn and probably wouldn't comply with him. To his surprise though, she did. Sitting back down Fiona crossed her arms.

 

"Alright." Was all she said.

 

'Thank god' was Rhys' only thought as he started to stride out of the room, "Be back with the beer in a while!" He yelled as he had finally got out of the room. The door close and he started to make his way to the laboratory when he heard what sounded like frustrated yelling come from the room.

He opened the door, walking in cautiously. He couldn't say he expected anything less than what he saw but that didn't stop him from being slightly startled. He kept quiet though as the Hologram that was once there disappeared. It was most likely that Jack had been trying to make himself appear and got frustrated when Rhys wasn't in the room. Rhys moved in silently and made his way to the desk where he grabbed the device. It probably wasn't safe to keep it in the laboratory where his friends could walk into it and see Jack. If he was going to keep it a secret he would have to keep it in the most private room he had. His bedroom. He put the device in his back pocket and broke into a sprint towards his room to try and keep the time he wasted to a minimum.

 

"What are we running for?" He heard Jack's raucous voice boom through his ears. Rhys let out what could be classified as a yelp and the device fell straight out of his pocket hitting the ground with a loud clank. Rhys tried in a panic to catch it but it was too late.

 

"Hey! Careful with that kiddo, I  _live_  in there." Jack shot a glare at Rhys.

 

"Don't do that!" Rhys yelled, his voice cracking slightly.

 

"Aw sorry did I scare you?" Jack said, crossing his arms a smirk replaced the glare he once had. "Didn't know you could scream like that." Rhys shot a quick glare at Jack.

 

"How did you already figure out how to turn it on?" Rhys asked picking up the device.

 

"Oh, it's not like I was an engineer or anything." Jack's voice was snarky, but he lost it quickly as he pointed to Rhys and the device, "Did you have me in your ass pocket?"

 

"What?! It- What was I-" Rhys seemed flustered and he turned off the device putting it in his back pocket, grumbling. He kept running to his room and as he got to it he put his hand on the biolock, which opened it, letting him into the room.

 

"The more you do that, the more annoying it gets." Jack said his form appearing behind Rhys. He jumped a little and looked back.

 

"Stop that!" Rhys said taking the device out of his pocket and setting it down on his night stand.

 

"Stop what? Am I annoying you Rhys?"

 

"Yes you are Jack." Rhys hissed out.

 

"Great!" Jack said, smiling even though Rhys could sense anger in his voice.

 

"Hey Rhys? Bro?" Rhys heard Vaughn from down the hall. This made Rhys start to panic and he lunged for the door to close it.

 

"Hey- uh- Jack listen, it would /really/ help if you decided to torment me later."

 

"Oh? Why? Am I a secret? Can I go through walls?" Jack said, walking towards the now closing door.

 

"What? No- Why would you even think that was possible? You're a hologram. Not a ghost." Rhys said watching Jack as he approached him more.

 

"Hey Rhys? Can I ask you a question? How do you think your little friends will react knowing that you revived me  _again_?"

 

"You wouldn't." Rhys said. Jack reached for the door lock.

 

"Would I?"

 

"It doesn't matter, you can't open doors." Rhys retorted back, squinting at Jack. Jack retracted his hand.

 

"Oh, I don't have to Rhysie. As soon as you open that door to talk to your weirdly buff nerd friend I'll be able to spill this little secret."

 

Rhys' eyes widened as he took a step towards the device. "Stop it- I'll... I can turn you off."

 

Jack laughed and shook his head, "You 'turn me off' and I'll just turn myself on again." There was a pause between them before Jack seemed to clear his throat, "Well, to be fair that sounded better in my head."

 

"I can make sure that no one sees you. I know how to avoid them seeing you."

 

"You're going to have to leave this room someday Rhys." Jack said lowering his eyes and smirking, "When that day comes, I'll make all of your friends leave you."

 

"If I run out of the room and close the door you won't be able to project through the door." Rhys said, reaching for the devices power button.

 

"You know, just saying this from past experience, but it's really bad to say your plan to your enemy." Jack raised an eyebrow. He had glitched and was now closer to Rhys, standing over him his eyes like daggers piercing through Rhys' skin. "You won't be able to make it to the door in time."

 

"Rhys? Hey are you in there?" Vaughn was near the other side of the door, Rhys had looked to the door in a panic then back to Jack.

 

"Crap..."

 

"Ha. You hear that pumpkin? That's the sound of all of your friends leaving you." Jack took in a deep breath, despite not having lungs. "Do you  _smell_  that? It's the smell of victory kiddo. Guess what? I win."

 

"Not yet you don't." Rhys said turning off the device Jack looked to him with a disappointed glare as if to say that Rhys was being an idiot. Once Jack had disappeared completely Rhys started to count. He got to twelve as Jack appeared again, seeming even more disappointed than before.

 

"What? What even was that? You didn't even move. Did... Did you just do that to shut me up? That rude even for you."

 

"Twelve."

 

"Twelve? Twelve what?"

 

"Goodbye Jack." Rhys said turning off the device and making a sprint for the door and as it had opened he was counting the seconds that went by. He saw Vaughn approaching his bedroom. Rhys turned and closed the door, and barely before he started to see Jack materialize the door was almost closed. As Jack started to make his way for it the door had slammed shut. Rhys was sweating and shaking as he turned to Vaughn. Quickly he grabbed the shorter man by his shoulder and started to walk him off.

 

"Rhys? Hey- Hey Rhys." Vaughn shook free of Rhys' grip, "What is wrong with you? You look like you saw a ghost."

 

Rhys laughed loudly, "Yeah, yeah something like that let's go get that beer." He said trying to move Vaughn more away from the room but Vaughn moved away from Rhys' grasp.

 

"What's wrong with you?"

 

"Nothing. I'm fine." Rhys said, standing straight and pushing back his hair with his cybernetic arm. "Why... Why aren't you with the girls?"

 

"Because we heard you scream- are you sure you're ok?" Vaughn raised an eyebrow as he looked around the room, "did you see something?"

 

"Me? Oh uh-" Rhys blinked, "Yeah I uh thought I saw an Alpha Skag."

 

"Did you?"

 

"Oh- Oh no, no it was just my imagination." Rhys said letting out an awkward chuckle.

 

"Oh, well... Thank god." Vaughn muttered and stepped closer to Rhys patting his arm. "You scared the shit out of me." He put his hands on his hips and let out a huff. "Well, since I'm already up I'll help you get that beer."

 

"Yeah, thanks..." Rhys smiled slightly as he lead Vaughn off towards a small storage room. He was glad he avoided having to explain Jack being alive to Vaughn, it scared him that his friends would leave like Jack had said if they found out he was alive. Vaughn was the only one he had told that Handsome Jack was in his head back before any of this happened, before it was possible for anyone to see him. So he was sure Vaughn would understand, but he wasn't ready to say anything. He wasn't sure if he ever would be. He led Vaughn to the small fridge and grabbed out four beers, giving two for Vaughn to carry.

 

"Hey can I ask you something?" Vaughn asked, taking the two beers into his hand.

 

"Yeah?" Rhys mumbled out taking the other two beers, "What is it?"

 

"That prototype, when will it be done?"

  
"I uh-... Don't know yet..." Rhys said as the two made their way out of the room and towards the break room where Sasha and Fiona were waiting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the kudos, bookmarks, and comments!! You guys are so cool and I hope you like this chapter!!


	3. You Reap What You Sow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys tries to get a good night's sleep after what had happened, but Jack has other plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took so long (and that it's a bit short), I'm going to be updating this regularly hopefully though!

After the guests had left, Rhys made his way to his bedroom. The door opened swiftly after he put his hand on the locking mechanism. He scanned around the room and his eyes came to a halt on the glitching mass sitting in the corner of his room.

“This device is fucking shitty.” Jack spoke up after realizing Rhys had walked into the dimly lit room.

“It's only purpose was to project you Jack, as far as I can tell it's doing a fine job at that.” Rhys shut the door behind him and turned his head to Jack, “Are you mad because I outsmarted you?”

“No...” Jack muttered, “Out of everything you had to do, you had to make this the most boring device in the history of Pandora.” Jack kept his eyes on Rhys as he went to his bed, taking off his jacket. “The only thing I have to entertain myself is hand puppets.”

“Hand puppets?” Rhys asked, sitting on his bed and raising an eyebrow at Jack.

“Yeah, I made one sound like you and pretended to strangle it.”

“How did that play over?” Rhys said with a laugh as he removed his shoes. Jack glared at Rhys and crossed his arms.

“How do you think?”

“Not well.” Rhys let out a sigh and put his shoes by the side of the bed, “Well what do you want me to do about it?”

“Let me touch things.”

“Not happening.” Rhys unbuttoned his vest with a glare towards Jack, “You’re dangerous Jack, and I’m not letting Pandora get destroyed. It's my home now.” All that came from Jack was a hum. He did look angered though. There was almost a deafening silence between them.

“Are your friends still here?” Jack asked, turning his gaze to the door.

“No they left a while ago, why?” More silence. Rhys furrowed his eyebrows, “Alright then. I didn’t need an answer anyway.” There was still silence. “Alright... I’m... going to bed, so I’m going to turn the device off.” Rhys waited for a protest but there was none. He clicked off the device and laid down in his bed. He threw his blankets over himself and pulled them up to his face. It was quiet, a weird quiet. Rhys closed his eyes and let out a sigh, the Atlas facility hummed and creaked as Rhys drifted into sleep. Though, right before he slipped unconscious, he felt a little tingle of electricity near his face. Rhys swatted towards it in a sleepy haze and opened his eyes to see Jack glaring at him. Rhys held back a scream and he backed up, falling off the bed. He heard Jack burst into laughter. Rhys shot up and took one of his pillows and threw it straight at Jack. Of course, it flew right through him. Jack felt his chest and looked to the pillow on the floor behind him. Slowly he turned his head back around with a rather large grin.

“Good one pumpkin, you need to aim for the head though.”

“Get out!” Rhys yelled, “Get out of my bed!” Jack’s face turned from a grin to an almost bitter look.

“Alright... I will, as long as I get to ask you something.”

Rhys steadied his breathing and ran a hand through his hair, “Fine. Fine Jack, what is it?” Jack studied Rhys for a moment his eyes focused on Rhys’ face. Rhys tried to read his expression but nothing came out of it.

“Do you think…” Jack finally spoke up and moved off of the bed and strode up to Rhys, “If I did this-” Jack had cut himself off as he reached out a hand and placed a finger to the port in the side of Rhys’ head. Rhys hadn’t moved, hadn’t even tried to get away from Jack. “Well,” Jack spoke up after a while of the two staring at each other, “That answers my question.”

“W-What did you do?” Rhys asked nervously as Jack rose his right arm, looking at Rhys’ own arm in the process.

“Apparently nothing,” Jack said disappointed, and crossed his arms. “Damn and I was really hoping that was going to work.”

“Did you just try to take control of my body?!” Rhys held his right arm to him with a glare pointed to Jack, which was returned.

“No kid, I tried to give you a milkshake- Of _friggin’_ course I tried to take control of you!” Jack took a step closer now in Rhys’ face. “I will find a way Rhys.” Jack spat, “and when that day comes _Rhysie_ , You’ll regret bringing me back. Because I'm gonna make you watch as I kill everyone you've ever considered a friend. One by one, with your own. Bare. Hands." Then just like that, Jack was gone. Rhys couldn’t sleep the rest of the night, he didn’t even try to. The threat from Jack playing over and over in his head, he knew it was impossible unless he put Jack into the system or somehow reattached the ECHO eye back into himself. Hours flew by as Rhys worked in his lab, soon it would be around five now.

Rhys rubbed his face as he leant on the desk. He couldn’t stop thinking over and over about it, and it was impossible for Jack to control him. Many unauthorized tests, from Jack himself, of it proved it was impossible. So why was he still shaken? He figured working under Jack probably did this to a person. That and Jack had tried to kill him right before he tore out the eye. He rubbed his eyes and decided to go get some coffee, which he already had about four cups of to keep himself awake. He kept a coffee maker in his lab, off in the far corner where nothing could contaminate it. Although it was pretty close to the door which was left open. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the same blue hologram that was keeping his gaze locked to Rhys. Rhys didn’t like to be watched like this but keeping his door open was more to watch Jack then the other way around. “What do you want Jack?” Rhys asked as he poured coffee grinds into the maker.

“You know what I want.” At that Rhys paused and looked to Jack, “Nice bags, guessing you haven’t slept since _you know_.” Jack crossed his arms and tried to lean on the door frame. Rhys was quiet as he shifted his attention back to his coffee. “I love tormenting you Rhys. You make it so easy to scare you.” Rhys switched on his coffee maker and looked to Jack.

“Is that all then?” He asked, obviously tired. Jack was glaring daggers into Rhys now, keeping his lips pursed. Rhys continued to make his coffee, pouring creamer and sugar into it before walking past the door.

“I’ll start with that little buff nerd of yours.” Rhys stopped in his tracks and turned to Jack.

“What?”

“I’ll start with him, and I’ll make you watch as you tear his body limb for limb.” Rhys’ eyes were widened and he put his coffee down.

“You know that it’s impossible Jack! You can’t get back into my head, and you know that!”

“I’ll find a way Rhys,” Jack sent a chilling smirk towards Rhys, “I always do.” Rhys gritted his teeth and went to shut the door, closing it and making the hologram stutter out of existence. “You can’t keep yourself locked in there forever Rhys!” Rhys moved back from the door and grabbed his coffee sitting down near the door. Eventually, the sounds of Jack screaming and threatening him drowned into the sounds of the old Atlas facility. Then it seemed Jack had given up, there was only silence on the other side of the door, which made Rhys check if he was still there. Opening the door, he wasn’t greeted with a blue hologram, instead he was greeted with an empty hallway.

“Jack?” he called, looking down the hallway near his bedroom, nothing was there. He looked down the other side of the hallway and still nothing. He roamed cautiously towards his bedroom hoping that Jack wouldn’t jump out at him, since Jack’s anger and boredom had been focused on him. Peering into the room, he saw nothing but darkness. “Jack? Where are you?” He walked up to the device, expecting fully for Jack to jump out and scare him. What ended up scaring him was a scream from down the hall, where the entrance to the facility was.

_Oh no._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for sticking around and reading this although I haven't updated in /forever/ but I hoped you enjoyed it! \\(o w u   
> I can be found on tumblr @jaych1r1


	4. Keep Your Friends Close

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack makes himself known, but will the person he makes himself known to turn their back on Rhys?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who kept their promise on updating this regularly.... THIS GUY. Also my summaries are sounding more and more like clickbait and there's no stopping me.  
> Enjoy

His first thought was to turn off the device. Unless it was a pyscho, the scream meant whoever was in his facility saw Jack. He didn’t get much time as he could hear the person running down the hall. Sadly if this was a pyscho, Rhys wouldn’t be able to really protect himself. Although he had reprogrammed the facility it was almost impossible to get the defense drones to get working again, he blamed that little problem on Jack taking them over. The stun baton! Right! How could he forget? He rummaged through his bedroom drawer and grabbed it quickly.

“Hey, you’ll never guess who I-“ Rhys shut off the device again and rushed out of the room, colliding with the person who was running towards him. Their stature was much shorter than his own but still was able to knock him over. The person grabbed him by the shirt and tugged him upward. Opening his eyes only to be met with the face of his best friend.

“ _Rhys_ , What the HELL did you do?!”

“W-What do you mean?” Rhys asked defensively letting go of his stun baton.

“I just saw- I just _saw_ Handsome Jack!” Vaughn’s eyes were wide and crazy, looking from Rhys suddenly up as a soft cackle broke the silence Rhys had brought on. In Rhys’ haste he had forgotten to close the door and now Jack was standing above the pair with a wide grin. “You see that too right?” Vaughn whispered out, “I’m not losing my mind… _Right_?”

“Oh, you’re not losing your mind there pint-sized.” Jack crossed his arms as he leered over the two, sending chills down Rhys’ spine. He had to tell Vaughn something right? Vaughn would think the worst of him, he had to make up a good reason for bringing Jack back. Looking into Vaughn’s eyes, he couldn’t bring himself to say anything. He didn’t know what to say. What would he say? He wasn’t even sure why he had brought Jack back himself.

“Vaughn I… I know this looks bad but-“

“Bad?!” Vaughn held down Rhys, “This is worse than bad Rhys, this- this is-“ Vaughn’s grip loosened, “What were you thinking?!”

“Vaughn, please just let me explain-”

“You brought Handsome Jack back to life- on _Pandora_. You said you killed him!” Vaughn stood up and held onto his head, “What if Fiona or Sasha found out before me Rhys?!” He waved a hand towards Jack, “I know we aren’t good people but you just resurrected the devil himself! I-I- _hah_ and I thought you went crazy before!”

“You know I’m still standing here, Rhys your friend here really isn’t taking this well.” Jack sounded amused as he watched Rhys get up with a slight stagger.

“Vaughn, you have to understand why I did this,” Rhys looked at Vaughn pleading, as his best friend seemed to hold his breath and look to Jack, then back to his friend.

“Rhys, I have been your friend for more than ten years, and in those ten years, I have never wanted to hit you in your face more than this moment.”

“I’ll let you if you let me explain a little,” Rhys tried to give a smile but it faltered. Vaughn was silent as he waited for Rhys’ explanation, “Look, I know this is going to sound unbelievable but… Jack is harmless. I promise. He can’t hurt anything.”

“How do I know that Rhys?” Vaughn crossed his arms and let out a sigh, “How, _How_ do I know that he’s not controlling you right now and making you say this so he can… I don’t know destroy Pandora?”

“You don’t trust me, Vaughn?” Rhys’ eyes widened as he felt like he was becoming empty.

“How can I Rhys?” Vaughn wasn’t looking at Rhys, his gaze was now focused on the ground, “You lied about killing Jack.”

“I miss popcorn, it would be the _best_ thing to eat while watching this,” Jack piped up, he was now floating on his back with a grin pointed at the two. When they had been quiet for a while Jack laughed, “No, _please_ continue, this is perfect. Oh! Rhys this device can it record? I want to watch this over and over as you watch your friend leave you. Although that would make killing him less entertaining, but this is too good to pass up.”

“What?” Vaughn had finally looked back to Rhys, but his usual gentle gaze was replaced with anger, “You were planning on killing me?”

“I would never hurt you Vaughn! Jack wanted revenge on me for almost killing him I swear I had nothing to do with this!” Vaughn rubbed his face as he took in a few deep breaths.

“How?” Vaughn asked below his breath.

“Wh-What?” Rhys stepped slightly closer to Vaughn.

“How is he harmless?” Vaughn said, louder than before.

“The prototype that was in my lab- You remember that right?” Vaughn had nodded slowly, keeping his eyes on Rhys, “Well, that was a device I made to project Jack. I made it so he has no way of getting into the systems, or you know, anyone’s head.” Vaughn let his hands fall to his sides.

“You promise me that I am actually talking to Rhys right now and not… Not Jack. Right?”

“I promise, I pinky promise,” Rhys smiled and held out his pinky which Vaughn took reluctantly.

“So he’s harmless?” Vaughn asked, still a little suspicious of his friend.

“Yes Vaughn, he is I told you. He’s perfectly harmless right now.”

“Right now?” Vaughn repeated with a slight glare.

“He means when I get wheels on that little device I have I’m gonna run over people’s feet- _on purpose_ ,” Jack said, now floating on his stomach with his chin on his hands.

“He’s talking to me Rhys,” Vaughn whispered looking to Jack, “I don’t like that why is he talking to me?”

“Relax.” Rhys drew out the ‘lax’ as he turned slightly to Jack, “What I do is ignore him.”

“Does it work?” Rhys looked back to Vaughn with a smile.

“No, not really he uh… Well, let’s just say he’s hard to tune out.”

“Damn Right I am, hey Rhys, speaking of wheels can mine be diamond encrusted?” Rhys shot a glare to Jack.

“I still don’t like the idea of this Rhys,” Vaughn scratched his beard as he turned around to leave, “Bringing Jack back to Pandora was a huge mistake. I might forgive you but I’ve been your best friend for ten years.” Rhys’ face had twisted into a worried expression.

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying this is dangerous. If I was Fiona or Sasha or worse- Athena- imagine what you would be right now.” Vaughn looked back to Rhys for a second, “What I am saying Rhys is that you have to watch yourself. I’m not going to forgive you for bringing back Jack. I mean, I’ll accept that you’re out of your _mind_ but there is no way I’m going to protect you from what might happen.” Jack was now standing by Rhys.

“I haven’t even thought about that.” Jack said sarcastically, turning his gaze on Rhys, “Come on, we all know that Athena isn’t friends with Rhys,” There was a pause and Rhys looked to Jack then Vaughn.

“You’re not going to protect me?” Rhys croaked out, “I thought we had each other’s backs- forever, no matter what.”

“That was before you did this Rhys,” Vaughn started to walk away, “I’m still your friend and I’m not going to tell anyone about this, but don’t expect me to rush to your aid if someone comes to kill Jack and you along with,” Vaughn paused and turned himself back to Rhys, “I came here to tell you that I found a bandit camp that apparently has Atlas tech.” Rhys looked down when Vaughn turned his back again, “Details are on your echo Rhys.” Vaughn left then, leaving a terrible feeling in Rhys’ chest. There was a whistle from beside him and Jack looked to Rhys.

“I’ve seen best friend break-ups but I’ve never seen that.” Jack moved to the other side of Rhys, “So, tell me Rhys, how does it feel? Being left?” Rhys looked up and took a deep breath.

“Pretty shitty.” Rhys finally said after Jack had leaned on the wall.

“Now, if you would have just stayed with me in the first place this all could’ve been avoided,” Jack said, with a snarky tone.

“You’re right.” Rhys looked at the ground, hearing a sputter from Jack.

“I am? I… I mean, of course I am kiddo!” Jack was again beside Rhys. Rhys had kept his gaze on the ground for a while before finally turning towards Jack.

“You’re right Jack, and we can go back to that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oooh you guys are going to kill for the next chapter.. ah don't kill me tho that's not what i meant... ANYWAY!! Hope you enjoyed and sorry this story is like 90% angst and 10% comedy relief lmao  
> Also what I noticed I totally forgot to tell you how exactly Aftermath's choices go... which I will tell you now because why not?  
> >Only tell Vaughn about Jack  
> >Accept Jack's proposal  
> >say sorry to Jack before practically killin' the dude. [tell your friends you killed the jerk when in reality you saved his life]  
> >go fight that big vault monster  
> >I dunno you came back from the vault and now you have an angry AI congrats.  
> as always, you can contact me on tumblr @jaych1r1


	5. But Your Enemies Closer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Sometimes a deal with the Devil is better than no deal at all." -Lawrence Hill
> 
> Rhys makes a deal with Jack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OOH you like that title? Also the quote huh? Yah I was hoping I could do something like that I'm so proud of myself rn.  
> I should mention this chapter took a little longer to write only because my siblings are visiting from a long way away and I've missed them, and also have got like almost no alone time.  
> Anyway, enjoy

“You’re right Jack, and we can go back to that.”

“Go back to that? You had your chance Rhysie.” Rhys held the bridge of his nose and sighed.

“I revived you, isn’t that enough to make you give me another chance?” it looked like Jack was thinking on it looking at the ceiling, but his gaze turned quickly back to Rhys.

“I'll hear your offer but if I don't like it then I'll...” Jack furrowed his eyebrows, “I better like it.”

“You will I promise,” Rhys had taken in a long and deep breath. He would have to find some way to get Jack to be back on his side. “I... I can make you a body if you help get Atlas back on the map.”

“You? You can make me a body? I thought we went over this back in Helios that you... _you know_... destroyed.”

“I can track down Nakayama’s findings or even the blueprints could be great but I could get you a body Jack.”  Jack seemed frozen still, so still that Rhys had thought to check if the device itself had frozen.

“How long will this take?”

“I... I’m not sure? A year perhaps, maybe less maybe more it all depends on what we find.”

“We? I don't know if you’ve noticed but I can't really go anywhere.”

“I'll make you wheels until then. We could rebuild Atlas together Jack!” The glint in Rhys’ eye did not go unnoticed by the hologram.

“Fine. Say we actually go through with this. I want to make sure this isn't a set up to kill me.”

“Kill you? I just noticed how valuable you are; how many people _hate_ your guts- how many people would pay to have you killed!” Rhys fidgeted and clenched his fists, “I may have revived you for selfish reasons but I had to sacrifice some of my things too to bring you back. You should be thanking me for not going through your meat suit plan.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me, Jack, your plan had flaws- and what would you do with my body huh?! I'm just saying, your plan sucked so it failed.”

“No, my plan was perfect. The only flaw was trusting you to go through with it,” Jack growled, “Just like this. I won't go through with this.” Rhys pursed his lips as he glared at Jack.

“No, your flaw was trying to use me as a meat suit. There is a way I can get you a body and back there we could have gotten you a body easily.”

“Easily, do you really think that-” Rhys cut Jack off with a click of his tongue.

“Yes, _easily_ , back at Helios I’m sure we could get access to Nakayama’s files, but now we have to scavenge for them.”

“Do you even know where to look, or are you just pulling this out of your ass?”

“I’m sure Opportunity has some of them on record if the bandits didn’t totally destroy them,” Rhys scratched his head then smoothed his hair back, “It would take a while but with that and somehow getting some DNA from your corpse down in that volcano I can make you a body.”

“You really have this thought out... Don’t you?” Jack seemed a bit uneasy as he shifted himself.

“Are you kidding me? I have backup plans if this all goes to shit.” There was a soft, weird breath that left Rhys as his gaze fell to the floor, “I never wanted to kill you, Jack. You left me no choice, in fact, I wanted to rule together- not exactly as one but side by side with you. That was my dream.” Jack didn’t look at Rhys when he looked up and had held onto his arms. With a sigh, Rhys started walking, “I didn’t think I would be able to convince you. This was pointless.” There was an uneasy silence but before Rhys could even get two steps past Jack the hologram spoke up.

“Alright,”

“Alright?” Rhys questioned turning on his heel to Jack to stare him in the eye, “Alright, what?”

“I’ll do it. On... One condition.” Rhys raised an eyebrow at Jack.

“On one condition?”

“We rule Atlas together.” Jack had his signature smirk on, that if Rhys was honest, he missed. “I would say shake on it but we can’t so...”

“That sounds like a plan,” Rhys gave Jack a smile, “No more death threats.”

“Not promising anything. Also, when will I get these wheels that you talked about?”

“If I get some rest...” Rhys seemed lost in thought before shooting a finger gun towards Jack, “At most three days.”

“That’s what I like to hear you little nerd,” Jack laughed, “You won’t need help will you?”

“I made my arm I should be fine.” Rhys started to walk again and this time, the hologram was following him, “Diamond encrusted you said?”

“Yes, I did.”

The rest of the night had almost gone unspoken before Jack had cut in again, sitting on Rhys’ bed as Rhys got ready to sleep. “You know it’s only the afternoon,” Jack said laying down, some of his holographic body going through the bed.

“I didn’t sleep for like,” Rhys counted, “At least three days.”

“Well, that’s not healthy, surprised you haven’t passed out yet.”

“Hard to go to sleep with you have a hologram threatening you every second.” Jack went quiet and that made Rhys laugh, “Listen there’s really no hard feelings, I get it. You thought I killed you,”

“You kind of did.”

“It was more like a coma really,” Rhys moved into sight of the room from the bathroom. “You were gone for a long time before I finally was able to bring you back.”

“How long?” Rhys shrugged at the question and walked near to the bed.

“About four months,”

“Four months?” Jack whistled and looked to the ceiling, “Four months I missed.”

“Yeah you really missed a lot.” As Rhys sat down the bed creaked a little, “I fought a vault monster.”

“Out of everything you told me, that is the most unbelievable thing that you have _ever_ said.”

“No, no I really did! Remember Fiona?”

“Fiona, Fiona.... why does that sound familiar?”

“She was the one that wore the hat and had the sister that was in love with guns?”

“Oh! Hat I lady yeah I remember her, why did I need to?”

“Well, she's a vault hunter now! She's really good at it too. She said I could come along on some...” Rhys looked at his hands as his breath hitched, “I don't think I really can,” Jack sat up with a confused look on his face.

“Why not?”

“I just can't,”

“What's stopping you?” As soon as Rhys looked to Jack he understood and let out an “oh”

“Yeah, and it'll only get worse when they know we're partnering up together.”

“Why is that?”

“I told them...Well, I told them I killed you.” The hologram raised an eyebrow and that made Rhys point to the device, “The eye that's projecting you I told them I crushed it.”

“So that's what shorty went off about. You lied to protect me?”

“Well technically I lied to protect the eye.” there was that smirk again, “Ok yeah I did it to protect you. If they found out I still had you with me they'd try to kill you, I couldn't let that happen... I mean I needed you.”

“Don't get cheesy on me kiddo,”

“Right, yeah sorry...” Rhys fluffed his pillow and looked at Jack, “I could tell you how I defeated the vault monster,”

“A bedtime story?”

“Well, I... guess?”

“I'm not the one that's tired. I'm a hologram I don't get tired.”

“Then you tell me one,”

“Ok... How about the one where I fought off almost a whole army of DAHL soldiers?” Rhys snorted which made Jack glare at him.

“No sorry I was just laughing because I already heard that one... at least a dozen times,”

“Well, you're about to listen to it again so get ready.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh yes, how I love writing stuff like this and not being kicked for making Vaughn "leave" Rhys I am so sorry for that by the way... Sorry it's a bit short too, heh..  
> I'm always on tumblr, trust me if ya wanna talk I'm gonna talk to ya' Tumblr: @jaych1r1


	6. I want mine diamond encrusted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally, Jack gets wheels!! Which means Adventure- which means- wait a minute...  
> In which Jack gets wheels and disobeys Rhys.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo!! Guess who finally updated, first of all sorry for that [by that I mean not updating this] I'm updating it now though because I love it and I need to update this. There was just soooo much going on and I'm so happy that you guys like this, because I do too and I have soo much planned.  
> You can hit me up on jaych1r1.tumblr.com I'd love to talk to you guys!! [and I love making friends]  
> Thank you guys for comments and kudos! [That's what fuels me to write stuff lmao]  
> This chapter was waaaayy longer than I first expected, hope you guys enjoy that c;

When Rhys woke up he went straight to work- not that he had a choice anyway because once Jack had seen he was awake he non-stop pestered him until he walked into the lab. Ok, no he was still pestering him and standing in the doorframe of the lab tapping his foot, and although it made no noise due to Jack being a hologram it was still annoying and distracting. Rhys glared at Jack through the corner of his eye. Seriously if Jack could just leave him alone for like twenty minutes tops he could get the frame for the wheel done faster, but  _ no _ he had to sit there and stare at him impatiently. Rhys took in a deep breath and let it out along with most of his rude retorts.

“Do you  _ need _ something, Jack?” Rhys asked with a forced smile on his face.

“You’re taking too long,” Jack grumbled, crossing his arms.

“Yeah well maybe that’s because someone is standing there and distracting me,” Rhys shot a glare back towards Jack, his screwdriver slammed on the desk with the incomplete- actually barely  _ started _ \- metal frame for the wheels he was going to give Jack.

“How am I being distracting? Huh? Tell me that,” Jack was now standing straight and moved slightly into the door, the half of him in the door glitching.

“Well for one you’re staring at me- I can’t work if you’re looking,”

“That’s stupid- if anything it should make you work faster,”

“Well, it’s not ok?” Rhys hissed and stood up, walking to the door and squinting at Jack.

“Don’t you dare,” Jack whispered in a growl.

“Oh I do dare,” Rhys said before closing the door to the lab. He heard a few yells at him through the door- although it was mostly Jack throwing a tantrum. It had eventually stopped and Rhys could finally get to work.

Like he said, without Jack he could get it done faster, and he did. The thing about Jack is he stopped being that intimidating when Rhys finally had the mental capacity to know he couldn’t do anything but spew harmful words. Even then he was really just more annoying than he was intimidating. Jack, his former hero, was now much more of a big toddler now. Rhys moved the frame across the desk with a whistle. It was somewhat clear that there might be bugs in Jack’s system, after all, he did glitch more than Rhys had originally thought he would, and the guy was made by Nakayama. Rhys looked to the door and waited for any type of noise from the Hologram, it had become suspiciously silent again and Rhys didn’t really need another base invasion from one of his friends.

He stood and gave himself a good stretch before walking to the door and opening it, when the hiss of the doors finally stopped and it opened he saw what he really wasn’t expecting to see, which was Jack standing there, arms crossed and face formed into a scowl. “Is it done?”

“Yes, see what happens when you  _ wait _ ?”

“Handsome Jack doesn’t wait,”

“Of course,” Rhys moved back and went for the frame, he had made sure the clasps near the wheels would hold before walking over to Jack and holding it out, “Custom made, just for you,” Rhys hadn’t lost his snarky tone and Jack definitely realized it.

“You’re not going to take this away from me are you?”

“If I have to ground you from the wheels then I will,” Rhys muttered, the glare that Jack shot him didn’t go unnoticed by Jack, “What do you say?” Rhys mocked in a sing-song voice only to get a huff from the hologram.

“Can I get my wheels now, Rhys?”

“I was looking for something more along the lines of a ‘please’ if you can even say that,”

“ _ Please _ , can I get my wheels  _ now _ , Rhys?” Jack hissed, it had only made Rhys let out a quiet laugh.

“Alright, as long as you don’t run over my feet,”

“No promises,” Jack slightly smirked when he saw the glare Rhys shot him, “I’m kidding, kiddo,” Rhys shook his head and tried to walk through the door, even with Jack standing there. He moved through and felt a buzz run up his spine and shivered, Jack only raised an eyebrow at this as he followed alongside Rhys as if he was relaxing on his back in a pool.

“There are a few rules we have to go ov-“

“Rules are meant to be broken, so spare me them would ya cupcake? C’mon, just imagine the places I’ll go and the things I’ll see, even if Pandora doesn’t surprise me that much anymore,”

“That goes against one of the rules,” Rhys said as he looked to the floating hologram who seemed way less than amused with being told what to do, “People are going to want to kill you, Jack, pretty sure around ninety-nine percent of them do,”

“Then who’s the one percent? You?”

“I…” Rhys looked ahead of them, “Like I’m saying, Jack, you need to be careful, I mean your AI isn’t even that good,”

“Well because I wasn’t made by myself if that makes any sense,”

“I’m hoping to patch you, and I can’t do that if some psycho demolishes your AI,” Rhys fumbled with the frame as he walked into his room and set it down on his bed, “I hope you aren’t going to defy me because this is literally life or death,”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Jack made grabby hands at the wheels and Rhys rolled his eyes.

“Are you even listening to me?”

“Yeah… Yes. Yes, I am, stay in the facility like Rapunzel, I get it, Rhys, now let me have them, I’m tired of glitching,” Rhys sighed and reached behind him to grab the screwdriver he had in his pocket and looked at the device.

“You might not want to be on for this,”

“Why?”

“Well, the device can’t project through bodies, it’s going to be really awkward,”

“Like how awkward are we talking here?”

“Well, either you’re going to be a ceiling dweller, or I might be straddling you, either way it’s going to obstruct my view,” Jack had looked up to the ceiling as if he was taking it into consideration, his gaze finally fixed to the ground and he ran his hand through his hair, like literally through it. He looked over to Rhys with a huff.

“Alright, fine, see ya on the flip-side cupcake, ciao!” with that the hologram disappeared and Rhys got to work, grabbing the device and starting to screw it to the frame.

Finally, it was silent as he worked, sure usually he would have to force the silence because Jack always insisted on being right there when Rhys did anything, but now Jack was actually cooperating with him.  _ Finally _ .

Once done with his work, he set it on the ground and quickly checked the wheels to make sure they worked properly, and thankfully they did. He was just about to turn on the device when he heard a “ _ woooooaahhhh _ ” from above him. He tilted his head up to see Jack pretending to wobble and catch his balance.

“Now THIS is going to take some getting used to,” Jack pointed towards the device as he crouched, “So how do you control it?”

“I was hoping you could figure that out, because I sure  _ don’t _ know how to,” Rhys’ smile has slowly formed into a grin, seeing how Jack had glared at him in silence.

The silence, however, did not last long.

“Bravo kiddo, you made something that you don’t even know how to operate,”

“It was a  _ joke _ , Jack,” Rhys pouted crossing his arms as he stood to his full height, “You think of a direction you want to go and it should go, as easy as walking… Well walking for robots,”

“Seems simple enough,” Jack stood and had matched Rhys’ height and stared at the device intently, not only a second later the device moved, making Jack glitch slightly, but other than that it worked just as Rhys expected. “Ha! Look at that! It’s moving,”

“Yeah that’s what I made for,”

“Don’t be a smart-ass, Rhys,”

“Of course, well, I hope it’s to your liking because I have a few errands I have to run, you just stay here until I get back,”

“Yeah, yeah, go get your hair done or whatever, I’ll hold down the fort with no defenses,”

“I’m not stupid Jack, I have defense turrets,” Rhys rolled his eyes before stepping out of his room, and leaving the hologram to himself. Hopefully, Jack would listen to him… Hopefully.

It had probably been around twenty or so minutes since Rhys had left, Jack had wandered the halls of Atlas aimlessly, looking really for anything that would be considered fun.

Nothing was.

There’s a huge limit on how much a hologram can do after all like he couldn’t shoot anything, he couldn’t put the whole facility into a self-destruct mode. Well, unless he was in the system, but Rhys wouldn’t allow that, he didn’t even allow Jack back into his head.

So much for trust.

Then again, he did just think he should blow up the place because he was bored. Maybe Rhys was right about not letting him into anything, didn’t stop him from being pissed about it, though. He stopped beside a window and looked out to Pandora. It still looked sandy, and it still looked abandoned. Jack was staring a little longer than he should have.

Then again if he hadn’t been studying the window he wouldn’t have found the hole beneath it, it almost looked big enough for him to squeeze the device through it. What about his projection? What would that do? To be honest, he had been a silent onlooker sometimes in Rhys’ head, so maybe he could do that with the device? He let himself flicker out of vision and tried to move the device, and to his surprise, it did move.

In fact, whatever the eye was on was able to move around like he was some moon rover. It really intrigued him, he’d have to tell Rhys how cool it was after he got Hyperion back. Oh, and crushed Atlas of course.

He moved through the hole and tried to look through the darkness, not much was able to be seen except for a faded light at the end of it. It didn’t take him long to get outside, and it definitely didn’t take him long to run for the hills like a wild animal that had just been let loose. He made his way out of New Haven and ran, or more drove, for it, booking it into a small crack in a rock around a mile from the Atlas facility. This is when he decided to flicker back into existence. With a whiff of the air, even though he didn’t have lungs and couldn’t smell, he smiled.

Jack was finally free. Now he could leave this planet and go back to Helios wh-... Which was crashed on Pandora. Fuck. He hadn’t even thought about that. Jack bit his lip and looked back only to be met with the face of a skag, staring at him.

“Oh great,” he muttered and turned to it, the skag opened its mouth and let out a piercing screech that only had made Jack flinch slightly. It lunged and Jack quickly closed his eyes, only to hear a thud behind him. He had cracked open an eye to find the skag behind him now, shaking itself from the harsh landing.

“Ohoho, oh my god, aha-“ Jack started to laugh manically, holding onto his stomach, “Oh my god- Y-You’re so  _ stupid _ ,” The skag looked back to him and growled, inching towards him as if it was stalking prey, “Oh what are you going to do? Lunge at me again? That’s not going to work, dumbass,”

Alright, so maybe he’d have to add taunting Pandoran wildlife to the list of things he did that he isn’t exactly proud of, but it was just too good to pass up at the moment. Like he predicted the skag lunged for him again, only this time instead of thudding into the ground behind Jack, he heard a gunshot and saw it’s body flop to the ground.

_ Just when Jack was starting to warm up to the skag _ .

He let his gaze fall behind him to about ten or so bandits, staring at him like they had seen a ghost. Jack reached to his thigh and tried to grab for his gun, but… it wasn’t there. He looked to his hand mortified as his gaze switched up to one of the psycho’s that had jumped onto the rock that his device was hiding in.

“ _ Blue meat is great for your bones _ ,” the psycho murmured while leaning closer to Jack.

“Uuuhh… Excuse me?”

“That’s Handsome Jack!” One of the bandits had screamed from the crowd, making the rest of them go into an uproar of yelling.

“Oh yeah?” Jack said, a grin forming on his lips, “Well come and get me boys,” Jack opened his arms wide, and the first to jump was the psycho, and like he predicted the psycho had landed behind him with a thud, Jack couldn’t really contain his laughter as he shielded his eyes and flung back his head, his whole body erupting in laughter, “OHOHO MY GOD! You guys are so  _ STUPID _ !” He heard a horde of gunshots directed his way, which, funnily enough, had only hit the psycho and killed him. Jack laughed louder until he heard a ‘ping’ and his whole body glitched. He quickly looked up to see one of the bandits standing behind him.

“He’s a hologram! Aim for the rock!”

_ Fuck _ . Jack looked behind him as the firing squad had switched to the rock and aimed. As quickly as Jack could, he started to move the device looking for cover as bullets raced past him and zipped by the device that was wobbling on the uneven ground. It had suddenly hit a rock and landed on its side. Jack tried not to let out a frustrated scream as he looked behind him to the bandits gaining on him, and the one that had noticed him aiming his gun straight for the device. Jack knew this was the end, but he wasn’t going down without a fight,  _ even if he technically couldn’t do anything _ . He did the only thing that came to mind, which at the moment had been to hold out his finger as if it was a gun and shoot. He’d add it to the list of things he did that he wasn’t proud of. He moved his finger back as if he fired and…

A shot rang through the air.

The bandit in front of him fell to his knees with a disgusting gurgle from his throat and the blood from his head spewed in behind him, and a bit of brain too. Jack stared in disbelief for a second before looking up to the other bandits with a widening grin.

“Oh you’re ALL dead!” he screamed, and they had all stopped running, probably from  _ fear _ , Jack was terrifying after all.

That’s when he noticed they weren’t looking at him but behind him. He turned slowly to see the one face he was hoping to avoid, even more so as he saw the fuming rage the younger man was exerting with a silver looking gun pointed in the direction of the bandits, and the two floating Atlas drones behind him.

Rhys was  _ pissed _ . Not a cute pissed either, Rhys actually reminded Jack of himself for a second as the Atlas CEO stepped more forward. Rhys didn’t even say anything to Jack as his metal hand showed a display screen and the Atlas bots started to move towards the bandits with their machine gun mounts firing at them. Some of the bandits had started to shoot back, and a few had started to run. Jack quickly shifted his gaze back to Rhys.

“I am so turned o-“

“Do not talk to me!” Rhys yelled at the hologram, grabbing the device with his metal hand, “You didn’t listen to a thing I said!” Rhys waved the gun in the air with a frustrated scream before shoving it back into a holster on his hip, “What are you?! Deaf?! Do you not care about what I say?!” Rhys turned back to the Atlas bots that were now returning with soft squeaks. Jack let himself look at the gory scene behind him with a whistle.

“Damn Rhysie,” Jack let out a chuckle but felt himself glitch as the Atlas CEO started to move again.

“You are such an idiot! You could’ve got severely damaged!” Rhys held the device out with both hands as if he was deciding to punt it half across Pandora or not.

“But I didn’t,”

“Because I was here to save your ass!” Rhys dropped the device into a bandit technical as he started it up. The ride was silent all except for Rhys’ muttering and growling as he drove back towards the Atlas facility. The silence ending as they entered the facility, though, Rhys put down the device and sent the bots off to guard the entrance, “Do you think I just give you rules for fun Jack?!”

“You know what I like? The fact you killed a whole bandit camp for me, baby,”

“I had too! Who knows what would happen if it had gotten out?!” Rhys held his head and let out a frustrated growl.

“What had gotten out?”

“That you’re alive!” Rhys looked back up to Jack, fury clear in his eyes, and he stepped towards the door, “I’m  _ leaving _ , again, so I can finish what I had to do,” Rhys stopped and looked back to Jack and held out his robotic hand as a display came up, “Dumpy, guard the device,  _ alright _ ? If he moves anywhere from outside this building,  _ shoot him _ ,” There was a scream of a robot behind Jack and Rhys nodded before walking out of the Atlas facility, the doors slowly closing behind him.

“He’s hot when he’s mad,” Jack said with a smirk and looked too Dumpy who had said nothing- or more screamed nothing, “What? I like them fiery,” 


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhys gets a visitor, but he's not exactly home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's the homestretch guys, I only have a few more chapters I was thinking about, sadly... Just know I love this a lot and I'll try my best to get to my goal, which was getting this fic done before November ends. So expect a lot of chapters this month!  
> Thank you all for being so patient when it comes to me uploading, I really have a lot going on and it's getting harder for me to find time to write, but just know this doesn't mean that's going to stop me from writing. Again thank you, you guys are amazing!

The silence in the facility was deafening, who knew it could be this quiet? Jack didn’t feel like projecting himself, after all, there was no one to torment, and the drone behind him wasn’t much of a speaker... more of a screamer. There was a rattle of the building and he felt the whole thing rumble as it started to pull out of the ground.

 _Rhys was back_.

The device started to roll towards the door without Jack even thinking about greeting the angered man, and he was guessing he was still angry, because the drone was still up his ass. The door slid open, and Jack expertly hid himself behind a desk as the drone flew over top of him. The loud noise from the door opening echoed throughout the room, then modest steps, one of someone who was a bit afraid of something- no wait... It couldn’t be Rhys could it? The man had stormed off, and if he was anything like Jack had thought he was, he would still be mad and stomping into the facility. It wasn’t a bandit was it? Nah, that wouldn’t sound like that either.

“Rhys? Rhys, buddy?” Jack scooched the device just enough to see Rhys’ friend, Vaughn, looking around the place. His eyes caught the device and the short buff man started to walk towards it, the device pulling back as Jack remembered how vulnerable he was in this state. “What the...”

“Don’t touch it,” Jack spoke up, spooking the man as he quickly pulled back his hand from trying to pick up the device. The friend started to get hysterical, saying things of “I knew this would happen,” and “Rhys owes me money”, finally he stopped spouting nonsense as the man sat down on the desk sighing.

“You killed him, I knew this would happen,”

“Kill ‘im?” Jack said, a slight laugh, “I can’t even go out of here without being shot by dumpy here, how in hell’s name would I kill that lanky bastard?” Vaughn switched his attention to the now flickering hologram of Jack.

“Where is he?” It wasn’t even a question at this point, more of a demand, “Where is Rhys?”

“How the hell should I know? He stormed out of here a week ago, I haven’t heard jack sense- ha. Jack, you get it?” The shorter man didn’t laugh, he just simply jumped off of the desk, his feet hitting the ground and sending dust flying.

“I’m going after him,”

“Suit yourself,” Jack mumbled, making his hologram float as if he was relaxing in a pool, “Not like I care what happens to you,” Vaughn looked back to Jack, his eyes showing anger and defiance, _when did all of his employees start to grow balls_? He felt himself glitch as the man grabbed the device and held it firmly.

“Why would Rhys bring _you_ back? I just don’t get it,”

“Put me down! I don’t want to be in your little gremlin hands!” Jack screamed, growling at the end of his sentence.

“What’s stopping me from destroying you?” Vaughn shot back, glaring at the hologram who he know couldn’t do anything.

 _Jack really hated being helpless_.

“Let go of me!”

“You have to know where he is,” Vaughn only whispered to himself, but it had reached Jack’s ears- or, whatever the hologram was using to pick up sound.

“I don’t know whe-”

“Jack!” Rhys yelled as he entered the door, face fuming in rage. _He must only see me_ , Jack thought as he looked pleading to the lanky man. He was covered in dirt, his black suit had been shed down to where he was now only wearing a dress shirt, a few Atlas drones strolled in behind him, a few had specks of blood on them- just as Rhys did- and others were carrying guns. Rhys took in a sharp breath, his vision finally seeing the other figure clearly beside Jack, “ _Vaughn_?” All except for the whirring of the Atlas drones, it was silent. Nobody moved until Rhys’ friend dropped the device from his hold to instead run over to his friend.

“Hey! I live in that!” Jack said offended as the device dropped to the ground, landing on it’s side.

“You idiot!” Vaughn yelled at Rhys, hitting his shoulder before hugging him, Rhys had only stood there, not sure if he was supposed to hug Vaughn or not.

“Vaughn?” Rhys questioned again, his voice cracking, “W-What are you doing here bro?” The taller man’s voice had dropped down to where it was a whisper, as if he was getting ready to cry.

“I can’t trust you to be by yourself,” Vaughn laughed, his voice also weavering, “I tracked your life signal and one day it just disappeared,”

“ _Creeeeppyyy_ ,” Jack said in a mocking tone, still trying to flip over the device so he could drive it away from this sappy scene.

“What happened?” Vaughn asked, pulling back from the hug finally and Rhys placed a hand on his shoulder.

“I was just taking back Atlas tech, you would not believe how much of this stuff bandits hoard,” Rhys explained, moving himself past Vaughn while patting him, “Jack over here ran off on my first day of it, though, at least I recovered the Chimera that morning, the thing packs a punch,” Rhys pulled out the gun, showing it off to Vaughn, it was the same one Rhys was carrying when he saved Jack.

“Rhys,” Vaughn said softly, “I don’t think he should be around,”

“Who?” Rhys put the gun back in his holster, raising his eyebrow.

“Jack,”

“I can hear you, you know!” Jack again went ignored by the two.

“What do you mean by that?" The silence from his friend explained it all, "but I’ve already worked so hard on him Vaughn, and don’t you think it’ll be cool? Me, CEO of Atlas, and I have the ex-CEO of Hyperion at my command?”

“You’re going crazy, I think Pandora is getting to you,”

“Pandora is not _getting_ to me Vaughn, I’m perfectly fine,”

“You have a psychopath as a pet!”

“Rude,” Jack murmured, but other than that stayed quiet as he watched the two friends argue.

“This is the exact conversation we had before Vaughn,”

“Because you won’t change your mind about this, Rhys! He shouldn’t be alive, you know that!”

“He _is_ alive, and he is going to _stay_ that way,” the taller man said defensively.

“You’re getting yourself killed! And for what?! Why do you even want him alive?!” Rhys fell silent at Vaughn’s words and turned his gaze to Jack, who was sitting there like he was enjoying their fight.

“I pity him,” Rhys whispered, turning his gaze to the ground, “You weren’t there, you don’t know the things he’s said to me, you weren’t there, Vaughn,”

“He tried to kill you, Rhys!” Rhys, along with the hologram, widened their eyes, “Are you seriously going to stand there and tell me that you’re ok with that?!”  

“I’m not b-”

“Then why is he alive?!” Rhys didn’t notice as the hologram had finally got the attention of dumpy and flipped him over so Jack could leave the room. The two friends stood apart from each other, “Why?” Vaughn said, espaperated when Rhys didn’t answer, and even after the second time Rhys was still quiet, “Why Rhys?!”

“I DON’T KNOW!” Rhys screamed, holding his head, “I just wanted him back, I was so lonely Vaughn, and when he said that-” Rhys took in a few breaths, “He was pleading, _begging_ me not to kill him. I don’t know if it was a dying man’s pleas, but fuck, Vaughn I felt so bad- I just couldn’t have him hurt anyone, I made a plan, and-” A hand on Rhys’ shoulder silenced him.

“You didn’t have to,” Vaughn whispered, a bit choked up, Rhys looked up into his eyes.

“But I did, and he’s my responsibility, and I’m not going to,” Rhys sighed, falling to the ground with his friend, “I can’t kill him again,”

“But what if he kills you?”

“He... won’t,”

“How do you know?” Rhys pulled himself away from Vaughn and stood, looking for Jack but he wasn’t there.

“Jack?” Rhys called out, as Vaughn also stood.

“Rhys, answer me,”

“I don’t,” Rhys whispered with a side eye to Vaughn before walking off. His friend didn’t chase after him as he rounded the corner, seeing the device huddled up against a wall.

“Jack?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, oooh cliffhanger, I'll be updating again really soon- and I actually mean that this time.


	8. New Perspective

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Change is a hard thing to do unless you're a robot apparently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello guys! See, told ya I'd update soon. Ah, right this is kind of just more set up before I get to the last ehhh maybe 2 or 3 chapters, (yeah I wasn't lying about the end being close) I'm soooo glad you guys like this! Thank you for comments+kudos!!! They make me so giddy like I can't even describe it lmao

“Jack are you there?” Rhys had to admit, he was still a little peeved at Jack and the silence he got from him only angered him further, “Jack, answer me,” The cybernetic man reached out for the device but immediately stopped himself and pulled his hand back. Did Jack run out of batteries?

Ok, no that was stupid Rhys built him without batteries.

“You know what?” Rhys said and sighed, turning away from the device, “This is stupid, I worked this whole time literally sacrificed everything, to have you what? Ignore me?” Rhys huffed, “Maybe Vaughn was right,”

“He was,” There was finally a response from the device, but it didn’t help how Rhys was feeling, in fact, it just made him more confused.

“What?”

“Maybe he was right Rhys, I mean all this trouble you put yourself through for me? I tried to kill you... like four times, and you still trust me? I’ve heard of blind trust but you’re just stupid,” Jack flickered into view and put a hand on his face, “Listen, kiddo,” Rhys only scowled as he turned to the hologram, crossing his arms, “I’m not the man I used to be, you told me that yourself, whatever it was, faulty programming, the years of hell I’ve endured,” The two became quiet as they locked eyes.

“What are you saying?”

“I’m tired of glitching, I want to change,” The hologram was the first to look away, “There're things I want to forget too,”

“But some things you need, no matter what has happened, it happened for a reason,”

“My daughter committed suicide Rhys, her last words to me were ‘Dad, you’re an asshole’ I think I would be better off forgetting that,” Rhys cringed and ran a hand through his hair, trying to ignore the glare that the hologram was shooting him.

“I-I’m sor-”

“Don’t apologize, remember how I agreed to help you with Atlas? Listen, Rhys, to do that we need mutual trust, you won’t let me do anything, and I totally agree with you,” The hologram glitched as he took in a breath, “I would have done worse to someone like me,”

“Jack...”

“Let me finish, I need an attitude shift, and also a really nice tune up I really don’t like all this glitching,” Jack stepped forward and tried to lay his hand on Rhys’ shoulder but it went straight through. Rhys looked to the device then to where Jack had removed his hand and seemed to be rubbing it with his other. 

“Alright, I’ll do it,”

“Thanks,” Jack muttered, and oddly solemnly. The hologram disappeared again, making Rhys think some things over.

Was that Jack’s form of an apology? What even triggered it? Was it seriously what Vaughn said? He kept his eyes on the device, waiting from a yell to get a move on from Jack, although it never came, slowly he stalked towards the device and picked it up looking it over. Or maybe it was the rock the device hit a couple weeks ago. 

“Rhys? Y-You ran away so suddenly I-” Rhys only turned half of his body to Vaughn, still looking at the device.

“You haven’t left?” Rhys murmured, checking for any damages that could cause emotional things like what had just happened.

“T-Th... You want me to  _ leave _ ?” Vaughn asked, standing his ground, he wasn’t sure if he should yell at his friend or smack him in the head to get a grip like he had on that  _ stupid _ device. Rhys looked up, his mind was racing and he hadn’t noticed how rude he had sounded until now.

“No, Vaughn, no I would never,” The cybernetic man quickly walked over to his friend, grabbing him and pulling him into a hug, “We’re bros,” he said, a soft tone as he pulled back, “I would never tell you to leave, I just thought you were going to like last time,”

“Rhys,” Vaughn started, patting his friend’s shoulder, “I really don’t agree with what you’re doing, but...” Vaughn pulled back and stepped a few steps away, a grim look on his face, “I can’t let you indirectly kill yourself, after all, what kind of friend would I be if I just let you keep this guy around?” The cybernetic man pulled his attention back to the device. 

“I can’t destr-”

“I know that I really do Rhys,” Vaughn paused, rubbing his arm with a sigh, “I’ll pretend like I don’t know my friend is going crazy to other people, but I just wanted to know what you’re thinking of doing after this? Are you going to plug him into Atlas?”

“No... I mean I’m not planning on it,” Rhys started to move towards the lab, noticing that Vaughn was following him, “I mean I could make something that could integrate him into the system, but I’m not sure you know? I mean it’s Jack,”   
“I think ‘I mean it’s Jack’ is the sanest thing I’ve heard you say today, but why would you even want him in the system?”

“If something happens to me where I can’t use the robots or something,” The door to his lab slid open and he walked in, putting the device down on a table as he moved around the room to get various tools, “I mean it’s all stored in the Atlas database, but you remember how long it took me to hack into them without Jack’s help, granted most of them were shot down,”

“And you had to rebuild all of them,” Vaughn gave Rhys a soft smile, “I remember that,” 

“Yeah, and if you think people are really going to come after me then I need to be prepared,”

“If you got rid of Jack that would fix the problem,”

“But I’m not,”

“I know,” Vaughn sighed and scratched his beard, “I’m sorry Rhys, I need to leave before they think I’m dead,”

“Take care of the children of Helios Vaughn, I’ll be fine I promise,” The shorter man said nothing else as he stalked out of the lab and the door slid closed behind him.

“This sucks,” Rhys muttered while looking at the device, “Well, get ready Jack,”

  


Rhys wasn’t sure how many days had passed, endless amounts of coffee and sometimes falling asleep at the desk had left him out of cycle with the time on Pandora. He pushed himself up with his cybernetic arm from laying face down on the desk, the device sat right in front of his face, blank and non-working. It took a long time before Rhys could get Jack first working, patching anything up was definitely taking a long time. Rhys yawned and put his metal hand against his hand, the coldness of the metal feeling good against his burning and overworked body. 

He had tried to contact Jack some days, to see if everything was going fine but the hologram never answered.

_ What an ass. _

Rhys huffed and leaned back into the papers and ECHOs scattered on his desk and pushed a button on a fresh ECHO recorder. “Test... ugh, I think thirty-one?” Rhys placed it back down and pushed the button on the device, “Jack? Can you hear me?”  _ Silence. _ Great, Thirty-one failures to get Jack working again...

“Rhys,” came a voice from the device, it startled the cybernetic man so much he squeaked and covered his head. A faint laugh was heard and before he knew it the hologram was beside Rhys. After three weeks,  _ finally, _ Jack was working again.

“Jack,” Rhys sighed out, putting a hand to his heart, “Oh thank god,”

“I was out for a while wasn’t I?” Jack didn’t seem to be glitching that much anymore, “So what’s new? I see you didn’t really change my memories,”

“It was too much work,” Rhys dismissed Jack with a wave of his hand as he wobbly stood, “I made a few adjustments to the wheels, made driving more smooth, fixed your glitching problem, took me forever,” Rhys rubbed his temple and closed his eyes.

“You didn’t get much sleep did you?” 

“No, I was up I think for two whole days,” Jack went silent and the cybernetic man opened his eyes to see the hologram sitting there quietly looking at the ground.

“Do I... Have a detachable AI system?”

“Yes, but I haven’t tested it out, I have no way of knowing if there are any bugs in it yet,”

“Are you thinking of putting me in Atlas’ systems?”

“Yes, but only in  _ dire _ emergencies,” Rhys explained, his eyes drifting over Jack’s body. His stature was more powerful now like he was trying to look heroic again. The device started to roll again, rolling almost off the table.

“This is pretty nice, I don’t feel glitchy anymore,” Jack looked into Rhys’ eyes, a small smile on his face, “Thanks, kid,”

“No problem Jack,” Rhys sighed, letting his body fall back into the chair by his desk, “I really can’t wait for a full night of sleep,”

Jack’s head perked up and he looked at him, “Think that’s going to wait, you’re friend is back I think,”

“Ugh, I really have to get the front door to where it only opens on  _ my _ command, after sleep that’s my next project,” Rhys stood up and walked to his lab door, opening it to greet Vaughn, at least that’s who he thought it was. Rhys wouldn’t doubt it was Vaughn because of all the surprise visits his friend had been doing. The cybernetic man finally looked up to the door, his body being overcome with a sudden jolt of energy and fear.

“Sasha?!” He whispered loudly, before running back into his lab and closing the door, thankfully she hadn’t seen him...  _ He hoped _ .

He really needed to get friends that called before surprise pop-ups, it really should just be common knowledge, but obviously not. He looked to Jack, who was pretending to sit on the chair.

“So? Who was it?”

“S-Sasha,” Rhys whispered, the hologram didn’t look that amused.

“Let me guess, that’s a bad thing then?”

“Would you be ever so kind to stay here?”

“I mean I’m not  _ known _ for that, but sure,” Jack tried to turn the chair but failed, glancing at the chair with a glare. Rhys bit his lip, but made his way out the lab and waited for it to close behind him before greeting his friend.

“H-Hey Sash, what are you doing here?” Sasha stopped looking at the empty fake star-filled room and turned to him.

“I was just in town and wanted to say hi,” Sasha explained giving him a smirk, “What not happy to see me?” Rhys gulped and tried to let on a grin. 


	9. Same Mistakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stuff goes down... Sasha doesn't take it well

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, before I get like an angry mob at my door, I want to say that I'm really sorry for anyone who thought this story was going to be happy, cuz it ain't... like one bit...

“Not happy to see you?” Rhys asked, covering the worry in his tone with a laugh, “No, why- what did you hear?” 

“Nothing,” Sasha started to become suspicious of Rhys, and he wouldn’t blame her, he wasn’t ready to cover up the fact he was hiding the CEO of Hyperion in his lab, “Why? Should I have heard something?”

“No! I was just-”

“ _ Rhys _ ,” Sasha crossed her arms and his eyes fell to the Atlas Silver she had strapped to her hip.

“A-Alright, you got me,” Rhys said, a small laugh as he stepped to her and put his hands on her shoulders, getting them shrugged off, “I wanted to keep it a surprise but I got some guns from bandit camps around here, and I think you’d really enjoy them,” Rhys gave a small smile as the suspicion in her eyes disappeared and turned into glee.

“No way! What did you get? Any good ones?”

“Well I did get this bad boy,” Rhys pulled out his pistol to show her, and the chimera gleaned in the light.

“No way, the RV31 pearl chimera! Where did you get this?” Sasha grabbed it from his hands and aimed, looking down the sight, “This is a really old one,” 

“Yeah, all Atlas tech is, I’m hoping to get updates out there,”

“Must be tiring being a big bad CEO,” She remarked, giving back the pistol and Rhys strapped it back into its holster. 

“Why are you saying that? Is it the under eye shadows? It’s the under eye shadows isn’t it?”

“I was talking in general, but now that you mention it, you do look pretty bad... When was the last time you slept?”

“Oh, about two days ago maybe? A long time,”

“You were working on something, weren’t you? What was it?”

“Just J-” Rhys caught himself in time and rubbed his hair back, “Just hacking the new weapons to make them better,” He quickly said, his voice cracking a little and he hoped Sasha hadn’t caught that.

“You still haven’t shown me them,”  _ Good, she didn’t catch his obvious lie. _

“Yeah, I have them in...” Rhys thought and he looked back to his lab in horror. Of course, he had them in there!  _ With Jack no less _ . He couldn’t give Jack a warning and he couldn’t leave Sasha’s side. He was  _ so _ screwed, “In... In...” Sasha raised an eyebrow at him when he spun back around to her, horror still on his face.

“What? Is there a monster in your lab? Why the look?” Rhys bit his lip and looked to the ground.

“Hah... Yeah, more or less... A monster of a mess,” 

“I don’t care if your lab looks like a tornado hit it, Rhys, I just want to look at some guns,” Sasha started to walk to his lab and Rhys froze, not knowing what to do. If anything as soon as she opened that door and saw Jack he was dead, and if he stopped her or jerked her back she’d probably kill him too. Or maybe just give him a really bad bloody nose. She was getting nearer to the door and Rhys bit his thumb as he walked after her, hoping Jack wasn’t online.

“Maybe,” he started but the door opened and cut him off as Sasha walked in and looked around for the counter full of guns he had yet to upgrade. She let out a whistle as she walked over and picked up a small teapot pistol, checking it over before turning to Rhys, “The BLR4 troll, pretty small but it packs a punch,” Rhys walked near her and paused, giving her a small smile.

“Pretty nice right? Pain heals, was it?” Sasha rotated the gun around in her hand with a hum.

“Imagine how many people were killed with these,” Her eyes caught the glimpse of a shotgun and she reached for it, “The Hydra, those bandits you killed were quite the collectors,” 

“I also killed a few... corporate people, but yeah, they are,” Rhys flicked his eyes to the device that looked off, for now at least. He let out a happy sigh and walked over to Sasha, “I have a few lesser named ones, I’m just glad you know the name of most of these, speaking of names I really need help on naming this one prototype of one I’m working on,”

“You? Making a gun?”

“Hey! I made my arm!” Rhys mocked offense, letting off a small giggle.

“With blueprints from Hyperion,” Sasha remarked, turning to Rhys before her eyes widened and she dropped the shotgun in her hand. 

_ No. _

_ No no, this can’t be happening. _

_ Not again. _

Rhys gulped and moved near Sasha, “Hey, w-” Without warning he was thrown to the ground and when his body hit the ground he shut his eyes and let out a loud gasp followed by a whine of pain. It wasn’t long before he opened his eyes to see the famed Atlas Silver pointed straight into his face.

“Rhys,” Sasha’s voice was dripping with malice, but at the same time, it was also chalked full of fear. Rhys kept silent, looking down the barrel of the gun before up to Sasha who quickly pulled up the gun and shot twice at the blue hologram glaring at the two. Before he could explain the hologram situation, however, the gun was back in Rhys’ face. He also hadn’t seen the hologram step closer, keeping a fixated glare at Sasha.

“Stop moving,” Sasha ordered, keeping a strong gaze with the hologram. 

“Or you’ll what? Shoot him?” Rhys looked to Jack offended but didn’t have time to retort as the gun was pressed against his head. Surprisingly, Jack paused his walking.

“Sasha,” Rhys whined pathetically, it was obvious this was not going to go the same way it had with Vaughn.

“You lied to all of us Rhys,” Sasha whispered, the gun starting to hurt his head the more it pressed into it. Rhys opened to explain, but whatever he was going to say got caught in his throat, “Handsome Jack should be dead,” A laugh from the opposite side of the room made Rhys look to the hologram, crossing his arms.

“Handsome Jack doesn’t  _ die _ , sweetheart, you on the other hand,” Jack moved but the gun pressed against Rhys’ head stopped him again.

“I will not hesitate,” Sasha said to the hologram, although her voice was unsure. 

“You shoot him and you won’t get out of here alive,” Jack threatened, but his voice was calm, collected even. 

“You don’t scare me,”

“Oh but I should, I  _ really _ should,” Rhys shifted himself quickly, while Jack stepped forward again and the gun fired at least three times. Rhys screamed in pain, but as he turned back Sasha was no longer there and Jack was staring out the door with a grin, dumpy floating near the exit. One of those shots had to be the small Atlas drone. Rhys whined in pain and held his right arm, looking to the hologram who simply scoffed.

“You better get that fixed up, unlike your short nerdy friend... I don’t think she’ll be one for  _ secrets _ ,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was really short and I'm sorry


	10. Endline

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where it began, and where it will end. Who will be the hero? Who is the villain?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember when I said I wanted to get this done by the end of November? Haha I need better time management...  
> Welcome to the last chapter everybody! I'm kinda sad myself that this is coming to an end, I bet some of you are too. Anyway, with this being the last chapter of this I just wanted to thank you all for the comments and kudos and even just simply reading. You guys really make my day! so thanks!!

Rhys gave an unsure look to his robotic arm as he held it firmly, other than a few sparks it didn’t  _ look _ all that damaged, “It doesn’t look too bad, I can maybe fix it,” A sharp pain went through his arm as he tried to get it to move on its own.

“Are you sure you’ll be able to do it?”

“I know I might not have enough time to get it done, but if it comes down to it, it never hurts to use duct tape,” Rhys moved his arm and clenched his teeth, a small whine escaping from them, “Ow, f-fuck,” With a deep breath he looked to the small Atlas drone, “Thank you Dumpy for your assistance,” The drone screamed and floated around Rhys. 

“Why are you thanking it? It didn’t even hit her! That thing was useless,”

“Oh, and you were so much better?” Rhys shot back, trying to stand up without hurting his cybernetic arm more, “At least he didn’t make things  _ worse _ Jack,”

“Oh, so this is my fault now?” 

“Yes! Yes, it is! How would you think this isn’t your fault?!” The cybernetic man yelled to the hologram who clenched it’s hands and clenched it’s jaw. 

“I didn’t  _ ask _ to be brought back, Rhys,”

“Is that your go to now for realizing you messed up? ‘I didn’t ask to be brought back’? Huh?” 

“Well it just felt right to bring up at the moment, since you’re so dead-set on blaming  _ me _ for  _ your _ mistakes,” The hologram rolled it’s eyes, noticing the younger man pale slightly, “Finally realized that this was your fault?”

“Huh?” Rhys had looked into the hologram’s eyes, it was almost as if the hologram noticed something he didn’t.

“Don’t tell me you have short-term memory now,” The hologram lost the eye contact with Rhys as the younger man had looked to the floor with a heavy breath.

“I need to fix this,”

 

“It did say we did need all the vault hunters we could get,” The woman speaking walked around the holographic table muttering to herself, with a final sigh and putting on a smirk she turned to the other woman in the room, “Well Fiona, welcome,” She stuck out her hand, half of her body was surrounded in blue tattoos and her hair was red with frosted tips. 

“Thank you so much, Lilith, I won’t let you down,” Fiona shook her hand with a laugh, “I never dreamed I would actually do this but-”

“Fiona!” with a quick turn to the door, seeing her sister accompanied by a huge muscular man, “Fiona I need- I-I need your help, Rhys has gone crazy,” 

“What?”

“That happens a lot down here, friend of yours?”

“H-He’s brought back Handsome Jack,” With Sasha’s words the room fell silent.

“Handsome Jack is dead,” The siren moved towards the girl, “We killed him ourselves, he’s  _ dead _ ,”

“Yeah, well, he just doesn’t die, does he? Fiona, I need your help to get Rhys sane again,” Sasha looked pleading at her sister who seemed frozen in shock.

“Sash, are... are you sure?”

“Once Hyperion always Hyperion,” Sasha frowned and looked to the ground, “I saw it with my own eyes Fi,”

“No,” Fiona covered her mouth, “That little-”

“Well, if Jack isn’t dead, then we must get rid of him again, Who knows the dangers he could bring,”

“Handsome Jack is a pest problem!” The man that was behind Sasha yelled.

“Agreed, we can’t let whoever this ‘Rhys’ is live either, if he found a way to bring the biggest threat Pandora has ever faced, then he can’t live, Brick,” Lilith faced the tall buff man, “Gather our Vault Hunters and the Slabs, we’re going to need all the help we can get,”

 

“Rhys, just face it, you’re not able to do this, let me into the Atlas systems I’ll keep us safe,”

“I don’t need your help, Jack,” Rhys hissed, clutching the damaged arm, his breathing had become quicker over a small period and the hologram kept antagonizing him about needing more than just duct tape to fix the hole in his arm.

“Rhys, why can’t you ever listen to me?!” Jack yelled, furious by now that the cybernetic man had ignored every warning he had said about the damaged arm, “You obviously thought this was way more minor than it is! Can’t you see what’s happening?”

“I’ve been shot in the arm before Jack! In fact, I ripped out my own arm before! I’M FINE!” Jack flinched as a screwdriver was thrown through him.

“That’s how you want to be huh?” The hologram took a deep breath and clenched it’s jaw, “I tried,” With that the hologram flickered out of existence. Rhys looked back to the device to say something but shut his mouth. This wasn’t really time for him to argue with the ex-CEO anyway. 

“Jack,” Rhys said after a little bit of glaring at the device. The small thing backed up and turned away from Rhys, “Real mature,” the man yelled to the robot. A shock of pain went through Rhys’ arm and he let out a whine, sitting down on his lab table.

“Fine, have it your way, you were right blah blah bl- Would you just say something?!”

“Something,” the device muttered getting an offended gasp from the human sitting on the table.

“One thing I should have taken away from you is that stupid sarcasm,” Rhys kept his gaze on the device then sighed, his arm  _ was _ pretty damaged, more than Rhys had initially thought, “I'm not going to make it am I? I'm going to die here because I brought you back,”

“At least you'll be known  _ for _ bringing me back,”

“Ahahaha,” Rhys deadpanned looking at the forming hologram, “The one thing I get remembered for is you,  _ great _ ,” 

“You're just going to give up? Not try to be remembered for something greater, although I know I'm pretty hard to top,”

“I won't be able to do this, we both know I won't make it,”

“Quitter talk baby, Jack’s got your back, just plug me into ol’ Atlas an-”

“No,” Rhys stood, matching the height of the hologram, “I'm not, alright? There's too much risk,”

“Why don't you trust me?”

“Gee I don't know,”

“I could save you,” the hologram argued, “I could save  _ us _ ,”

“It's too risky,”

“Rhys!” Jack yelled frustrated, the other CEO was about to say something back but an explosion cut him off. The fear on Rhys’ face became more noticeable as he rushed for the device and tucked it behind a desk he kicked down to use as cover. A yell of “find them!” Could be heard outside the lab.

“I-I-I’m going to die,” Rhys whimpered, his gaze stuck with Jack’s.

“You're not going to die cupcake, you're not,” Jack sucked in a breath, just now noticing the man starting to shiver, “Do as I say, I'll keep you alive,” Rhys only nodded. 

 

“There!” A bandit, or slab, pointed to the lanky man walking out of the lab, hands up in a slight surrender. The siren leading them stuck her hand up to make her posse lower their guns. 

“I know what you want,” Rhys said, lowering his hands, to pick up something by his feet, “I get it, I did something completely wrong,” he walked as the guns were trained on him to a desk in the room he had repurposed from the broken Atlas statue. 

“Then you will hand him over,”

“I will?” The CEO grinned at the siren, “I don't remember saying that,” guns were again raised and Rhys side-eyed Jack, the hologram looked to the siren, a rage starting to burn inside him.

“Then destroy it or we will have no choice to destroy you and him,”

Jack looked at Rhys through his peripheral, the boy was shaking in his boots, but he didn't show he was scared on his face as he looked at the Siren in front of him. "You're not going to destroy him,”    
"Rhys are you crazy?!" The voice from one of his friends, Fiona, if he remembered correctly, rang through the quiet room.

“I worked too hard on him, as I see it he- AGH!” Rhys fell to the floor gripping his arm as the device rolled up to him, “I can't do this,” Rhys whined to it.

There wasn't time for much chatter.

“We tried negotiating Fiona, I'm sick of trying to save someone like this,” Lilith turned to the people around her, “Go crazy!” She yelled and soon bullets were flying towards the desk Rhys and Jack was behind.

“Rhys! Rhys, the turrets!” 

“Right,” Rhys breathed out being up the broken and glitching menu, “There,” Rhys saw a few bandits be taken down before the light on them went to a red like color, “oh no, not good,” Rhys peaked to look at the drones when one saw him and started to fire. 

“Rhys what is going on?!”

“I-I don't have control of the drones,” Rhys whined, pushing himself against the desk as his arm started to malfunction and spasm. 

“Rhys, listen to me,” Jack’s hologram got closer to the man who was trying not to scream in pain, “You have to let me into the systems, I promise you I will get you out of this alive,” Their eyes met and a scream of pain shot through Rhys as a bullet hit his shoulder, “Please Rhys trust me!” The look Rhys gave Jack was indescribable, a smile, mostly, but the pain was evident on his face. 

“I trust you,” With that Jack was in the blackness for a while, and when he came to he felt... So  _ powerful _ .  His eyes glossed over Rhys as the drones stopped, and his powerful booming laughter rang through the room.

“Rhys,” Jack started, all fire had ceased, even from the other side, “you absolute  _ idiot _ ,” 

“J-Jack wait- y-you,” Rhys watched as a drone hovered down to where he was sitting and the clicking of the gun was heard.

"You have no idea how long I've waited for this Rhys,"   
The shot rang through the air and the rest of the bandits and vault hunters have stopped in their tracks, maybe it was the way Jack's face had distorted, glitching or not, "Unless you want to end up like him, I would  _ RUN _ !” Jack's voice glitched as he yelled, startling some enough to where they did run.Then the barrage of bullets came through the room, vault hunters and the like getting shot down by endless bullets. Whatever it was, Jack was not letting anyone out alive. He had a well enough reason to watch bodies hit the floor. His gaze fixed to the siren.

It seemed so much harder to take down them when he was  _ alive _ . With a laugh, he waited for the rest to retreat or die.   
The bullets stopped, some had escaped, most were dead. Most notably, the Siren, and... Rhys. Jack wouldn't say his eyes softened at the sight of blood coming out of the boy’s body. He didn't feel  _ bad _ it wasn't his nature...

“This isn't the end Rhys, I  _ won't  _ break my promise,” Jack whispered, gritting his teeth.

 

_ “Rhys.. brrzzt I-I know you're not dead--brrrzzt-- your body isn't there--brzzztsshhh-- I know you are alive somewhere,” _

_ “What do you say kiddo? Is it time we paid your friend a visit?” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am _so_ sorry. This is the end of this fic, I hope you liked it as much as I liked writing it!!


End file.
